Associations to the word «Hamstring»

Wiktionary

HAMSTRING, noun. (anatomy) One of the great tendons situated in each side of the ham, or space back of the knee, and connected with the muscles of the back of the thigh.
HAMSTRING, noun. (informal) The biceps femoris muscle.
HAMSTRING, verb. (transitive) To lame or disable by cutting the tendons of the ham or knee; to hough; hence, to cripple; to incapacitate; to disable.

Dictionary definition

HAMSTRING, noun. One of the tendons at the back of the knee.
HAMSTRING, verb. Make ineffective or powerless; "The teachers were hamstrung by the overly rigid schedules".
HAMSTRING, verb. Cripple by cutting the hamstring.

Wise words

Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation.
Noam Chomsky